would this idea of ours be 'over developing' our property? (sorry long)

[bubblepop]

hi all. we live in what you might call a street fronted,cottage style semi. the house has bags of character, very large garden and 4 beds due to us exstending it to the side over the driveway.
we are a large family with 4 kids.just lately we have toyed with the idea of moving house,partly because although we have enough bedrooms,the lounge area is quite small. the front door opens from a porch, straight into the lounge.after that there is another reception room which is a little bigger, but not practical to use as the stairs come down into it.followthrough that into the dining kitchen.

dh's idea is to build a large family lounge off the kitchen (will have to rearrange cupboards)which will basically take up the existing patio area at the back of the house. we know we can do this at very little cost as we have done building work before and dh will do most of it himself. it will definately be a cheaper option than moving for us, and will make family life less 'cramped'. however, estate agent who came the other day to value it advised not to do it. she said we would be over developing the property and in the future it would not appeal to every one. she said our house would probably sell to a couple with a small family(say one or two kids). i asked my mum what she thought and she agreed,but she said the lay out of the house would'nt be right,and in effect it would become one long 'corridor'. what do you all think? if we did build it would be to suit us and we would'nt expect to recouperate any costs involved from any future sale of the house. saying that though, i would'nt want to ruin any chances of selling it in the future.

I would add a lovely conservatory instead of an extention. The conservatory would be lovely as an extra sitting room and provided your garden is big enough, would not lead to the house looking overdeveloped.

If a family with less children moved in, then they could use the conservatory differently, perhaps as a den or extra dining space.

If you are going to do it though, it needs to be done well and have proper heating and blinds etc

Difficult to judge from a description but the layout does sound as if it would be awkward (kin of corridor like as your mum said).

I have years of experience of watching Property TV programmes

soap box. conservatory out of the question as the garden is south facing and unbearably hot in summer

where is sarah beeney when you need her then?

It does sound a bit too much. Beware conservatories, too - freezing in winter, boiling in summer.

My friend has this and she has an uber-conservatory entire width of house. She had it built by a good local builders rather than a conservatory company (cost £35k for 16x12 foot)

The roof is a proper roof with two skylights (argon gas filled and with internal blinds), there are windows all around but with internal blinds, underfloor heating and a much higher brick wall (waist height so again less glass).

To sell she dressed it as a conservatory, lots of plants, cane furniture etc but she lived in it as a proper room. Taking the glass roof away made it easier to controllably heat it.

If you wanted to save money you could get a normal conservatory like another friend I have and put cheap rush matting on the roof (looks nicer than you would think) and she fitted a proper air conditioning unit for £800 - she uses it as a counselling room all year round. This would be much cheaper.

You said you had a large garden, I cant see any problem with fitting an extension or conservatory even if it is overdeveloped. Its a lot cheaper than moving so if your going to stay do it and just plan it carefully even when your going to sell - like dressing it as a dining room rather than the small reception room with the stairs being a dining room (have that as a breakfast room)

bump

To me it does not sound like 'overdeveloping'. You say you have 4 bedrooms, but not enough downstairs space. So your house sounds 'top heavy'.

By making the downstairs bigger you would effectively 'balance' the house out.

I think it sounds like a good idea.

The sceptic in me thinks that the estate agent wants you to sell now rather than extend as he wants a house to sell. Let's face it, the property market is slowing isn't it?

Personally I would extend. We are in the same position. We have a Victorian semi, and converted the loft a few years ago to give us a 3rd bedroom (the bathroom had been moved into the 3rd bedroom some years previously redcing the house to a 2 bed)
We now want to extend behind the kitchen to give a third reception room (would be a smallish dining room) and a cloakroom/utility.

Moving is much more expensive, and if you are happy in the area you are in, then extending is a much better bet. Especially if you are intending on staying for many years yet. You live in the house for you, not for its resale value.

I think living space is becoming more of a priority now as some people like to have a playroom and/or study for working at home.

I don't see how having more space would actually stop you from selling the house especially as the garden sounds big enough to accomodate the extension.

If you want to stay in the house for a good long while then you should do what you want to make the house suitable to your needs and not worry too much about resale.

Having said that, you could probably extend in a manner that made the room flow more appealing ("flow" very big with buyers at the moment) by getting an architect in for some advice. They obviously have years of experience in design and layout and may be able to offer much more radical solution that would work for everyone - needn't cost a fortune if you just use one for a consultation. There is even a company, architect-yourhome.com that will charge a few hundred to run through your options and come up with some solutions - money well spent if you ask me.

I hate conservatories and would never add one.

It sounds to me that what you need at the back is a huge kitchen / dining / den .. possibly with huge french doors spanning the back wall and opening into your large garden

then I would consider doing something with the front and stairs bit ... can you rearrange it so you have a hall .. and knock the front and middle room together to make a long lounge room? or would that be too narrow

Personally I'd do it because its how you want to live in it now and for a good few years .. not because of potential to sell

You need a computerised floorplanlike they have on things like Property Ladder. You can then see what you're doing and tweak layout. I was thinking along the same lines of Twigett - to make it work really well you'd need to make adjustments to the whole layout downstairs I think. Is it possible to make it all (or mostly - maybe all bar the front reception) open plan living for example?

Good advice I think from lalaonglegs. Because you know your house so well, it's easy to have limited vision as to what extension possibilities there could be. An architect will cost a bit of money, but I think it's money well spent if it results in doing something you had not thought of - or even just confirming that your current idea is workable.

Houses are for living in and unless you plan to sell soon I wouldn't overly worry about resale.

hi all. thanks for advice. it would'nt be possible to create a hallway. its not that type of house. the existing stairs lead up from the rear of the property to wards the front of the house, usually with hallways you enter the front door and then the stairs lead up towards the back of the house. also, there isnt enough width inside the house to create some sort of hallway. i wonder if there is a web site somewhere where you can do a floor plan,then i could show you all what i mean? (actually im not that clever with computers!)

Hi, have just been reading this and am wondering what you ended up doing and how it worked out as it sounds very similar to what I want

@bubblepop we need a layout to look at or we can't properly say if it's too much or not. Get something sketched out and post so we can help more

This Thread is 12 years old!

So it is, hadn't noticed that at all!